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407 pages, Hardcover
First published May 17, 2016
She was the sun, and he was a mere rock, drawn in by her gravity. He needed to be closer, to feel her magic, to touch . . . her.
The instant he touched her, his shadow flickered, and his real self flashed through. Vika sucked in a breath.
Oh, mercy, he was handsome, all ebony hair and ink-black eyes and a face so precisely chiseled, Vika could almost picture the blade that had created him. And the sparks that danced through his magic! Goose bumps rose where his hand held her, even though there was a glove and a sleeve between them. Everything inside Vika quivered.
“You cannot love her. You hardly know her.”
“If there were ever a girl a man could fall in love with without knowing, it would be Vika.”
For the winner of the game, there would be unimaginable power.Awesome. Great. That's an excellent thing to keep in mind. Do. Not. Lose. Except someone forgot to tell the main characters cause nobody seems to give a shit about winning the game the instant their nether regions start tingling in the presence of the opposite sex.
For the defeated, desolate oblivion.
The Crown’s Game was not one to lose.
"Imagine, and it shall be. There are no limits."
“This was the sort of book one ought to read in pieces, to properly appreciate and savour each bit. And yet he wanted to devour it whole. Messily and all at once.”
Oh, mercy, he was handsome, all ebony hair and ink-black eyes and a face so precisely chiseled, Vika could almost picture the blade that had created him. And the sparks that danced through his magic! Goose bumps rose where his hand held her, even though there was a glove and a sleeve between them. Everything inside Vika quivered.
Pasha hooked a leather ottoman with his foot and dragged it closer, then settled deep into his armchair for a long afternoon of reading. But he did not admit it to himself, either aloud or even quietly in his own head, that he was interested in the girl for more than just her magic.
She sparkled like the lanterns under the moonlight
“You cannot love her. You hardly know her.”
“If there were ever a girl a man could fall in love with without knowing, it would be Vika.”
There were few girls he knew in Petersburg society who could traipse through the Savannah without complaining about the burs snagging at their skirts or the dry wind mussing up their hair. But those thoughts didn’t even seem to occur to Vika. She was a mythical creature among ordinary human kind.
1 out of 10
“There are things more dangerous than a little magic.”
"And touching Nikolai, even through her gloves and his sleeve, was like being pummeling by stampede of wild horses. No, wild unicorns. Beautiful, wild unicorns."
— The Crown's Game (Царское состязание) #1/2
— The Crown's Fate (Царская доля) #2/2
❝I hereby swear my loyalty to the tsar,
And promise to abide by the rules of the Game,
A duel of enchantment, until a winner is declared.
To this and all traditions here before established, I commit myself
As an enchanter in the Crown's Game.❞
“Imagine, and it shall be.
There are no limits.”
I think I should've been alarmed when I first read these words in the beginning of the story:<...>but he wanted his daughter to grow up truly Russian—hiking through birch forests, playing the balalaika, and having an almost religious zeal for buckwheat kasha with mushrooms and fresh butter.
So to speak, the Russian aspect is as true in this story as hiking through birch forests, playing the balalaika and so one are true for Russian people, which is to say - it's bullshit. Not even in the 19th century those "hobbies" were a thing a true Russian enjoyed. I don't even want to touch other Evelyn's failures concerning Russian culture (and the were enough of those) but for one I can't ignore: Bolshebnoe Duplo ( a magical hollow) I read. Stopped. Read it again and then couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes. Like seriously? Bolshebnoe Duplo... Letter B in Rissian means letter V in English and the correct form of the word accordingly would be Volshebnoe. Maybe Evelyn decided to give the B letter a free pass to go amok and feel authentically Russian for once, no matter that English speaking people wouldn't understand author's "love for authenticity" and Russian speaking people wouldn't appreciate the gesture of mutilating their language.
The storyline is no better and resembles one big empty duplo (pun intended). I seriously can't fathom how a book about magical tournament set in Imperial Russia in reality turned out not to be about magic tournament set in Imperial Russia.
Than what was it about?
Insta-love and unicorns.
Guy one saw Girl one and fell for her,
Guy two saw Girl one and fell for her,
Girl one saw Guy one and fell for him,
Girl two was already in love with Guy one.
WTF?!
I wouldn't be surprised if stupid clichéd romance in YA books is one of the reasons aliens never visit our planet. I mean, who wants to deal with stupid teenage drama in the first place and when it's a drama in square? Nope.
Apart from everyone loving everyone in this book for no reason, the characters are also shallow, fickle creatures with no substance or depth. And they all are so fucking purrfect I wanted to throw up every time perfection was pushed in my face!
Just come on, how many stories about perfect beautiful people who fell in love from the first sight do we need to read and hate, to hint authors it's time to start creating flawed characters with something more to their name than good looks and lusty glances.
I was reading the book. I was rolling my eyes. I finished the book. I forgot it existed.
That is how I can summarize my reading experience.
For more detailed information about the book, go read my friends' reviews with whom I was supposed to buddy-read the book but couldn't due to busy time: review #1, review #2
FINAL VERDICT:
There is no such thing as a winner in the Game.